It was time for me to accept that reality was nothing more than a house of cards I’d been tip-toeing around since I was nine.
“Look, Daphne, I need you to understand what I’ve done. I brought something out of my dream with me. It’s not much, just a blob of gray stuff, like putty or clay, but it is real. I made it with my mind. Are you hearing me? I woke up with the stuff in my hand. Pulled from my dream into the real world. And I’ve only just started!”
Sounded like Darren was beginning to figure it out as well.
“I still don’t know how our connection is sparking these changes, but it is. It’s like you opened my subconscious up to what is possible. Next time I know I need to focus more on the details. But I’m certain that if I start creating an object in your dream space I can make it detailed enough to survive the transition from dream object to real object. I just need practice and your dream space can be like a safety net, or training wheels. I’ll use your tools until I’m proficient on my own. It shouldn’t take long. Maybe another three or four sessions. That’s not so bad, right? You share a few dreams with me and in return you get a front row seat to scientific history. You understand that I’m breaking the Law of Conservation of Mass, don’t you?” He paused and when I remained silent he said, “Matter cannot be created out of nothing, but that’s exactly what I’m doing! It’s impossible, but somehow I’m still able to do it!”
As someone who has done the impossible nearly every day of her life, I wasn’t impressed.
Had to read this again. Now I think I get it. He's using Daphne and she knows it. That he's so excited about it is gross. I hope she exacts a bloodletting.
Where you think that comes from, hillbilly skaag? Comes from up a holler. Mine. My home. Daddy’s name was Deacon Skaag and he was an awful man. But he was honest about it. Never claimed to be a saint. I just didn’t want no part of it. Took the family name but that was all. And then I had to come down here.” And memory long for it every morning, sisters in the kitchen, the crazy ass cousins and all the shit they’d get up to up in the hills…mama.
"I’ve moved around some. Got to. Nobody wants a skaag as a neighbor. Leastwise not once they find out."
"That .45 with the silver load? My Daddy’s. Shot mama with it then himself. I was up around Lookasee with some cousins runnin’ a pack. My daddy left that mess for my sisters to find when they got home from a preachin’ expecting one of mama’s good Sunday dinners and a quiet nap. They had to clean it up…and they were never the same.
"So who the fuck are you to tell me I need to leave," My ire was meant as a warning, like the rattle, but they took it as a threat. Fine. I didn’t want it to come to this but I don’t like being pushed around.
“You think you know what a skaag is but you don’t.”
"Why?" I stared at her from the bed, grappling with the last vision I had just had.
"What's that dear?" Her hands reached out to steady me.
"You killed her."
She paused and I saw her eyes change in the light. "Oh Molly dear." A sigh. "You're just now figuring that out? Let me guess, did you see me stab her? Did you do see the light leave her eyes?"
"Stop!" I pushed her away. "I don't want to hear it."
"But you asked me why I killed her." I tensed, gripping my hands tightly together. "Did you ever figure out where your powers came from? Originally I mean. Or how we ended up hear in the first place? Or why I wanted Vincent to marry you? Your mother may have have seemed all too perfect to the masses, but I knew her. I knew what she was capable of. I was protecting you."
"You killed my mother! How is that protecting me?"
He held the child by the scruff, held him paralyzed, “You’re alive because I told the boys that’s what I wanted. What else do I want?” mister shook the boy, “I want you to get it in your head right now that you will convey my message. Hear me son.” The boy cried out, "yessir."
“I need more pasture and you people are in the way. Move. I don’t care where. Defy me, I’ll see each one of you shot down, or chopped, all of you. I’ll burn your houses to the ground and take your livestock. After that, if you're lucky, I’ll forget about you. Pray I do. You understand what I’m telling you boy. Now you go, and ‘convey’ my word."
Something very villainous about leaning so hard on the absolute authority of their words. As if they can't imagine a reality in which their orders aren't obeyed.
“Mel,” she asked, her fingers steepled below her chin. “Aren’t you sick of these idiots just doing whatever they please and then getting a golden parachute while company value sinks, people lose their jobs, and actual smart people are sidelined?
"And don’t you want it to stop? Don’t you want them to be held to the same ridiculous standards as we are?”
Yes, I understand the Miranda warning. I watch cop shows like everybody else. Hell no, I don’t want a frigging lawyer. Leeches on society, every damn one of them. I admit it, I killed my wife. Why would I deny it?
It was time for me to accept that reality was nothing more than a house of cards I’d been tip-toeing around since I was nine.
“Look, Daphne, I need you to understand what I’ve done. I brought something out of my dream with me. It’s not much, just a blob of gray stuff, like putty or clay, but it is real. I made it with my mind. Are you hearing me? I woke up with the stuff in my hand. Pulled from my dream into the real world. And I’ve only just started!”
Sounded like Darren was beginning to figure it out as well.
“I still don’t know how our connection is sparking these changes, but it is. It’s like you opened my subconscious up to what is possible. Next time I know I need to focus more on the details. But I’m certain that if I start creating an object in your dream space I can make it detailed enough to survive the transition from dream object to real object. I just need practice and your dream space can be like a safety net, or training wheels. I’ll use your tools until I’m proficient on my own. It shouldn’t take long. Maybe another three or four sessions. That’s not so bad, right? You share a few dreams with me and in return you get a front row seat to scientific history. You understand that I’m breaking the Law of Conservation of Mass, don’t you?” He paused and when I remained silent he said, “Matter cannot be created out of nothing, but that’s exactly what I’m doing! It’s impossible, but somehow I’m still able to do it!”
As someone who has done the impossible nearly every day of her life, I wasn’t impressed.
Had to read this again. Now I think I get it. He's using Daphne and she knows it. That he's so excited about it is gross. I hope she exacts a bloodletting.
...be created nor destroyed. Says who.
Ah yes, sounds like a great deal... ;) Love the contradiction in that final line.
I'm no villain...
"Go ahead and say it. It’s just a word…skaag.
Skaag
What you people call a skaag are my blood kin.
Where you think that comes from, hillbilly skaag? Comes from up a holler. Mine. My home. Daddy’s name was Deacon Skaag and he was an awful man. But he was honest about it. Never claimed to be a saint. I just didn’t want no part of it. Took the family name but that was all. And then I had to come down here.” And memory long for it every morning, sisters in the kitchen, the crazy ass cousins and all the shit they’d get up to up in the hills…mama.
"I’ve moved around some. Got to. Nobody wants a skaag as a neighbor. Leastwise not once they find out."
"That .45 with the silver load? My Daddy’s. Shot mama with it then himself. I was up around Lookasee with some cousins runnin’ a pack. My daddy left that mess for my sisters to find when they got home from a preachin’ expecting one of mama’s good Sunday dinners and a quiet nap. They had to clean it up…and they were never the same.
"So who the fuck are you to tell me I need to leave," My ire was meant as a warning, like the rattle, but they took it as a threat. Fine. I didn’t want it to come to this but I don’t like being pushed around.
“You think you know what a skaag is but you don’t.”
Delving into the humanity and complexity behind the reputation - nicely done.
"Why?" I stared at her from the bed, grappling with the last vision I had just had.
"What's that dear?" Her hands reached out to steady me.
"You killed her."
She paused and I saw her eyes change in the light. "Oh Molly dear." A sigh. "You're just now figuring that out? Let me guess, did you see me stab her? Did you do see the light leave her eyes?"
"Stop!" I pushed her away. "I don't want to hear it."
"But you asked me why I killed her." I tensed, gripping my hands tightly together. "Did you ever figure out where your powers came from? Originally I mean. Or how we ended up hear in the first place? Or why I wanted Vincent to marry you? Your mother may have have seemed all too perfect to the masses, but I knew her. I knew what she was capable of. I was protecting you."
"You killed my mother! How is that protecting me?"
Good, old-fashioned gaslighting. Always a winner! :)
Yes! Very unsettling — especially the calmness in contrast to Molly's protests.
He held the child by the scruff, held him paralyzed, “You’re alive because I told the boys that’s what I wanted. What else do I want?” mister shook the boy, “I want you to get it in your head right now that you will convey my message. Hear me son.” The boy cried out, "yessir."
“I need more pasture and you people are in the way. Move. I don’t care where. Defy me, I’ll see each one of you shot down, or chopped, all of you. I’ll burn your houses to the ground and take your livestock. After that, if you're lucky, I’ll forget about you. Pray I do. You understand what I’m telling you boy. Now you go, and ‘convey’ my word."
Villainy with a thin veneer of compassion.
What are they supposed to say? Thank you, sir, for not just killing us outright. Mighty kind of you. Ha!
Something very villainous about leaning so hard on the absolute authority of their words. As if they can't imagine a reality in which their orders aren't obeyed.
I'll see what I can do, but in the meantime, one of my favorites. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Ricardo Montalban as 'Khan'...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axuKRsvlhNs
“Mel,” she asked, her fingers steepled below her chin. “Aren’t you sick of these idiots just doing whatever they please and then getting a golden parachute while company value sinks, people lose their jobs, and actual smart people are sidelined?
"And don’t you want it to stop? Don’t you want them to be held to the same ridiculous standards as we are?”
Clever use of rhetorical questions. You can't exactly say 'no' to this line of questioning.
Right? Getting you to agree with them right off the bat is very disorienting.
Yes, I understand the Miranda warning. I watch cop shows like everybody else. Hell no, I don’t want a frigging lawyer. Leeches on society, every damn one of them. I admit it, I killed my wife. Why would I deny it?
Dude.
Plain talking is such a disarming tactic isn't it?
I did this in high school for a english paper and my teacher gushed all over it. It's so fun to write villains!
Soooo much fun.